To:M. N. POKROVSKY

Published:First published in full in 1932 in the second edition of Lenin’sCollected Works, Vol. XXIX.

      Sent from Zurich to Sceaux (Seine) (France).

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1976],

      Moscow,Volume 35,

      pages262-263.Translated:Andrew RothsteinTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

December 21, 1916

Ihave received your postcard, of December 14, 1916. If they write to
you that the publisher owes me “in addition to the 500 rubles another 300
rubles”, I must say that I consider he owes memore, because he
accepted
(1) my work on the agrarian question,
				Part 1[1]and
(2) my wife’s booklet on an educational
subject.[2]And I consider that there is an obligation to pay for what
has been accepted, once the manuscript has been delivered.

Iwrote about this to Petersburg, but my contacts with Petersburg are
exceptionally weak and intolerably slow.

You“thought it possible” to throw out the criticism of Kautsky in my
pamphlet[3].... Sad! Really, really sad. Why? Would it not be better to
ask the publishers: print outright, gentlemen, that we—the
publishers—have eliminated criticism of a Kautsky. Really, that is how it
should have been done.... Of course, I am obliged to submit to the
publisher, but let the publisher not be afraid to say what he wants and
what he doesn’t want; let the publisher answer for the cuts, not I.

Youwrite: “You won’t thrash me, will you?”, i.e., for agreeing to
throw out this criticism?? Alas, alas, we live in too civilised an age to
settle questions so simply....

Jokingaside, it is sad, devil take it.... Well, I shall settle
accounts with Kautsky in another place.

Ishake your hand and send my best greetings.

[1]Thework wasNew Data on the Laws Governing the Development of
Capitalism in Agriculture, Part I (see present edition, Vol. 22,
pp. 13–102).—Ed.

[2]Leninrefers to Krupskaya’s bookletPublic Education and
Democracy. It was published in 1917 by the Zhizn i Znaniye (Life and
Knowledge) Publishing House.

[3]TheMS. of the bookImperialism, the Highest Stage of
Capitalismwas at this time in the Parus (Sail) Publishing House.